F  L  A  U  N  T

 When people procrastinate, not only do they lose time and productivity, they lose opportunities. If you are busy playing “catch up”, you are focusing on overdue tasks instead of keeping your eyes out for new ones. Austin Zelan calls this is a two-fold disadvantage as a business that is running behind is going to have a difficult time moving forward. Procrastination leads to missed goals. If tasks aren’t completed in a timely manner, this results in a domino effect. And if an important project comes up out of nowhere and takes top priority, you will be even further behind. Work tasks keep a company running, so when you procrastinate, you reduce the efficiency of your business. Austin Zelan points out that one of the biggest lost opportunities due to procrastination is career advancement. For entrepreneurs, putting things off can sink a company or even keep it from getting off the ground. For businesses with multiple employees, procrastination can halt productivity and damage people’s reputations. If two or more people are seeking a promotion, Austin Zelan isn’t going to give it to the person who can’t manage time wisely. When people put things off, they make mistakes and generally have higher stress levels. These elements further reduce work performance and focus. Another potential side effect is making poor decisions which can lead to missing internal and external opportunities. Promotions fall into the internal category, but damaged customer relationships and/or poor service create external damage. And Austin Zelan is well aware that bad news travels much faster than good news. Opportunities generally do not come around more than once. Whether they are obvious or subtle, you must keep your eyes open for them. This is tough to do if you are stressed and focusing on things that should have already been done. Businesses need to move forward, not backward. If you are working on something that should have been done yesterday, how will you be prepared to take on what tomorrow might bring?